Nigeria’s CPI extends deceleration to 16th consecutive month

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 11.61 per cent (year-on-year) in May 2018. This is 0.87 per cent points less than the rate recorded in April 2018 (13.34) per cent and represents the sixteenth consecutive disinflation since January 2017.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed this in the  published May 2018 inflation report released on Wednesday.

Food inflation rose by 13.45 per cent year-on-year  in the review period, notably lower than the 14.80 per cent year-on-year recorded in April.

Notably, the highest increase was recorded in the prices of bread and cereals, fruits, vegetables, meat, oil and fats, fish, and potatoes, yam and other tubers. However, on m/m basis, food inflation increased at a faster pace of 1.33 per cent, compared to the 0.91 per cent recorded in the previous month.

Core inflation was 10.7 per cent year-on-year  during the review period as against 10.9 per cent in April. Similar to the observed trend in the previous month, the highest increases were reported in the prices of fuel and lubricants for personal transport and transport equipment, vehicle spare parts, medical services, books and stationeries, domestic and household services, hairdressing salons and personal grooming establishment, paramedical services, pharmaceutical products, and passenger travel by road.

On a month-on-month  basis, however, the core index increased at a faster pace of 0.98 per cent, 11 bps above the 0.87 per cent reported in April.